Yes, this "slightly better" patch applied on top of your first patch against hda_codec.c did the trick, but with some side-effects:* the "Speaker" switch now mutes/unmutes speakers* muting/unmuting "Front" channel now has zero effect (in 2.6.24 it had the same effect as the "Speaker" switch now has)* changing volume on "Front" channel now affects volume in headphones (was not so in 2.6.24)

So there are now 3 vol controls that affect both speakers and headphones:* Master (which appeared somewhere between 2.6.24 and .25-rc1), when set to zero, the sound is still audible in speakers and headphones* PCM, working as expected (0 volume = no sound)* Front (0 volume = still audible sound)

So it is usable now (and those Speaker and Headphones on/off switches make sense), but kinda suboptimal. (is it my BIOS who is to blame?)